Fiberglass....

I want to change my vinyl dash in my accord to a fiberglass dash w/paint. Not only is the standard grey vinyl ugly, it is dry rotted (AZ sun). How hard is this to do? I know basic fabrication, but I have never worked with fiberglass.

It's very messy and takes alot of patience and time.

You have to design/layout your new dash, than build frame out of wood or etc. first. Laying fiberglass is very very messy and smelly. If you are using polyester than it's easier. Strech it and pin it down with stapler and then mix resin and hardener.

From my experience, add additional fiberglass mesh behind the harden polyester for about 4-5 layers, make sure to roll out any air bubbles with rollers. They takes about 45-60mins for each layer to dry. You'll be surprised how strong it will be, you can actually stand on it!

Is it possible to use the old dash as a layout, or to cover it? The vinyl on it is cracked up and and I want it to be paintable so I was going to put a few thin layers on, plus there are some new elements I was going to put/mold in (a monitor), and take out some things like the stock clock, and other various grooves in the dash.